The service situation of the Varyag

The Varyag started construction in early October of 1898/kloc-0 at Cramp Shipyard in Philadelphia, USA, with the shipyard number of 30 1. The official opening ceremony was held on May 22nd in 10 (Russian calendar). At this time, the hull has completed 1 102 tons, and some design changes have been made to increase ballast. Then it went online on June 1899 and June 65438+1October 3 1. With the increasing strength of the Japanese fleet, the Russian side also requested to complete the construction of the Varyag and the Letvizan as soon as possible, and in June 1900, June 65438+1 October1,and then 65438 entered the Russian navy sequence. There is also an episode in the middle: Russian sailors (mostly farmers) who came to the American mainland with the ship in advance found that the United States was so advanced and developed that more than 100 people fled in a few days! So that the crew received by the Russians when they received the next Letvizan arrived in the United States a few days before receiving it! The Varyag left Philadelphia on March 190 1 and returned to Russia. On the way, it also experienced extremely bad weather conditions. The offshore wind force reached 1 1, but there were only a few mechanical failures on board. At this time, there were 365 people on board, including 24 officers, 55 non-commissioned officers and 3 special passengers-representatives from Cramp Shipyard, Electric Company and nicklaus Company. On the way home, I stopped in Cherbourg, France (April 14), Revel (April 30th) and Kranstadt (May 3rd). /kloc-In May of 0/8, he was inspected by the Tsar at the Kranstadt military port, and then he was appointed as the escort of the Tsar's yacht and went to Danzig, Kiel and Cherbourg with other fleet ships. After completing the escort mission in September, he left Cherbourg on June 16 and joined the Mediterranean squadron of the Russian Navy in the port city of Salerno Bay in southwest Italy. At this time, the Mediterranean squadron included the battleship Nikolai I, a small torpedo cruiser, two gunboats and two torpedo boats Nr 1 19, 120. Soon after, he was sent to Lushun to reinforce the Far East Fleet. On the way, I visited Suez (Suez,165438+10.8), Karachi (Karachi, 65438+February 25) and Singapore (Singapore,1902+/kloc-0.0/0. 1902 In April, he also visited the German-controlled Tianjin Port in China.

During July 1902, the Varyag was tested again. Due to the boiler and personnel problems, it can only reach 20 knots in a short time, but it can be stabilized at 16 knots in a long time. 1903 was overhauled at the beginning, and the hull was repainted gray like other ships of the Far East Fleet. This work was also completed in September of the same year 18. At the end of this year, the situation in North Korea was very critical. 12 On February 29th, Varyag left Lushun for Incheon (now Incheon) to protect the Russian embassy and expatriates in Seoul, and arrived on the 29th of that month. The 1 cruiser and gunboat originally stationed in this area have returned to Lushun, and then the gunboat Koryo arrived in Incheon on 1904 65438+ 10/8 to restore the contact between the Russian Embassy in Seoul and Lushun. 1February 5, 904, Japan broke off diplomatic relations with Russia. The Japanese Navy Chiyoda, who was on duty in Incheon, North Korea, received a telegram that Japan had broken diplomatic relations with Russia, quietly anchored between two Russian ships and broke down near the exit. The next day, sasebo, the joint fleet, set out for Lushun. The fourth team of the joint fleet had three troop carriers, three auxiliary cruisers (carrying 2,500 people from the second wing of the Army 12 mission that landed in Incheon) and four protection cruisers (flagship Langsu Naniwa, Gaoqianhu Gaoqianhu, Akashi Akashi and NiTaccani Takaka). And 8 152-ton large torpedo boats newly built by the 9th and 4th torpedo boat detachments (Asama, Hato, Kari, Tsunami, Chidori, Hayabusa, Manazulu and Kasaki) attacked Lushun together with the joint fleet.

In the early morning of the 8 th, the Russian merchant ship Songhua River sailed into Incheon Port and reported to Varyag that a large number of Japanese ships were found outside the port. But the Varyag didn't get any news about the war, not even the news of breaking off diplomatic relations. It is still moored at Incheon Port with the gunboat Korejez and the merchant ship Korean. At this time, the British cruiser Talbert, which is also on alert, is moored in the port. The French cruiser Pascal, the Italian cruiser Elba, the American gunboat Vicksburg, the coal carrier Zaffiro and the small North Korean gunboat Joba, the British blue label passenger ship Ajax and the Japanese cruiser Chiyoda. There is a fjord near 10 nautical mile outside Incheon Port. At the entrance of the fjord, there is an island named Bawei. After sailing for 3 nautical miles, there is an island called Shiwei Island.

Russian ships were unprepared for the outbreak of war, and there was no obstacle when the Chiyoda left Hong Kong on the evening of the 7th! Just after noon on the 8th, the Japanese army arrived outside Incheon Port. 14, 15, Chiyoda, Gao Qianhu, Goshawk, Pigeon, Yan and Yan sailed into Incheon Port, stood guard outside the anchorage, and entered the fjord outside Incheon Port with six troop carriers. Other ships were moored outside the port. At this time, due to boiler problems, the speed of the Varyag can only reach 14- 16 knots, while the speed of the gunboat Koryo is even slower.

On the afternoon of the 8th, because the Russian ship stationed in Incheon had no contact with Lushun and received secret documents from the Russian Embassy in Seoul, Colonel Rudnev decided to send the Koryo back to Lushun by mail to report the situation. 15: 40, the Koryo left the anchorage. 15 minutes later, it encountered a Japanese fleet. The Koryo tried to cross the port between Chiyoda and Gaoqianhu, and the Japanese ship turned to intercept it, making the Koryo think it was about to be attacked, so it launched in panic.

Subsequently, Japanese torpedo boats goshawk, pigeon and goose also fired a torpedo at Korea, but they all missed.

17: 30, the Japanese army began to land. Until 2: 30 am on the 9 th, all the troops landed, but the materials were not completely unloaded. Incheon was quickly controlled by the Japanese army, during which Russian warships did not intervene.

At 6 o'clock in the morning, the materials were also unloaded, and the Japanese transport ships and auxiliary cruisers began to retreat to Bawei Island. The Japanese ships that had been on alert at the anchorage before, except the Chiyoda, also retreated.

At 9: 00, Chiyoda, on behalf of the commander of the fourth Japanese team, Guasheng Waizhi, issued an ultimatum to Varyag: the Russian ship must leave Hong Kong before noon, otherwise it will sink in the harbor. Later, he also withdrew from the anchorage and joined the Japanese fleet outside the port. At this time, the neutral ships in the port elected Bailey, the captain of the British cruiser Hound, as the representative, to protest against this violation of international law, but the captain of the American gunboat Vicksburg refused to join this neutral delegation. He thought that the Russians had destroyed the territorial sovereignty of North Korea on land! Bayali refused to make a written report on the cause and effect after the battle, which also attracted severe criticism from many British newspapers!

Shortly after noon, the Japanese ships Asami, Su Lang, Gaoqianhu, Akashi, Chiyoda and Niigata lined up from left to right in front of Bawei Island in the fjord, while eight torpedo boats occupied the entrance of the fjord.

1 1: 30, just half an hour before 12: 00 required by the Japanese ship, the Koryo anchored ahead, and the two ships were about 1 chain distance apart, so the Russian ship had no chance of fighting at all. At a distance of 7,000 meters, Asami fired at the Varyag first, and two Russian ships began to fight back. Although the Varyag kept dodging curves, many shells were hit. Many sailors on the upper deck were injured by shrapnel. Soon, the control tower was shot, the steering room was destroyed, and five 6-inch guns and seven 76-mm guns could not be fired. Rudnev decided to withdraw from Incheon. When it turned, an 8-inch shell fired by Asami penetrated the left side of the ship. The seawater began to pour in and tilted to the left, and was forced to return to the port, killing/kloc-0 officers and 30 sailors on board. Six officers and 85 sailors were injured or went into shock; 45% of the people on the upper deck lost their combat effectiveness. On the anchored ship, the officers thought that the Varyag had lost its combat effectiveness and should give up blowing up the warship. However, Bayali is worried that the explosion will damage other foreign warships. Captain Rudnev agreed to let the water sink. 18, the Varyag was sunk by the crew, and then the Koryo was set on fire by the crew. During the whole battle, the Varyag * * * fired 1 105 shells, including 425 6-inch shells, 470 75mm shells, only 2147mm shells, and the Koryo fired 52 shells. Due to the explosion damage, the Koryo was not worth salvaging, but the Japanese found that the sunken hull of the Varyag was worth salvaging. After that, it was salvaged by two Japanese salvage vessels on August 8 1905. After simple maintenance, it was towed to sasebo (sasebo) on February 23rd, 65438. It is mentioned that the Varyag sailed to sasebo by its own power. Later, maintenance was carried out and the superstructure and chimney were replaced. Later, it was named Soya by the Japanese Navy and used as a student training ship. 19 16 the Japanese navy originally planned to scrap it the following year. At this time, both Russia and Japan belong to the allied front, and the northern fleet is seriously short of large ships. Although it planned to buy ships from the South American navy, it failed, and it failed to build some destroyers for it through Japan. However, Japan proposed to sell some warships to Russia, and the Russians were in a critical situation and had to accept Japan's "blackmail."

In this way, 19 16 in March, Russia repurchased its own ships: Zonggu (formerly Varyag) 4 million yuan, Danhou (Tango, formerly Russian poltava) 4.5 million yuan, and Sagami (formerly Russian Navy Pat Levit Peresvet) 7 million yuan. 1965438+April 2, 20061Three ships went to Vladivostok in the Russian Far East for simple modification and maintenance. Meanwhile, the new captain of the Varyag also arrived in Vladivostok on March 27th. At this time, the crew on board included 22 officers and 570 soldiers. According to Russian information, the Varyag is still using the nicklaus boiler, but the Japanese simply repaired the boiler and put it into active service. Anyway, the Varyag used these boilers. During the maintenance period, Varyag made some minor changes, including the arrangement of 152 mm naval gun in the centerline position of the rear deck and the front deck. After several trials, the Varyag left Vladivostok on June 18 for Murmansk, a city in northern Russia. On the way, I visited Colombo (July 27th) and Tulong (September 19), and then in June 19 165438.

19 17 Winter, Varyag Kammel Laird Shipyard carried out necessary maintenance and modification. At this time, the Russian navy plans to reinstall the new 10/30mm naval gun on the ship to replace the old152mm naval gun. 1 917 February1these1kloc-0/30mm guns were issued by Russian Obukhov Arsenal. Before the Varyag set out for Britain, there were only four 152 mm naval guns on board, and other naval guns of the same type had been dismantled, waiting for the installation of new guns. On February 25th, she left Murmansk for England, and on March 25th, 17 arrived in Liverpool. However, at this time, the shipyard was already working at full capacity, so the Varyag had to wait. In April and May, all the crew except 50 people stayed and went to the United States to receive enough new ships. The last four152mm guns were finally unloaded and transported back to Russia by cargo ship together with the attached ammunition. Soon, the 12 130mm gun produced by Vexcor Company was sent to Murmansk, and then sent to Obukhov Arsenal by railway. Later, these guns and the152mm gun dismantled by the Varyag were used as part of the Baltic coast defense. After that, the Red Revolution broke out in Russia, and this trend also spread to the Varyag, and the flag on the ship was changed to red. However, the hull under repair on 19 17 12.8 was occupied by the British armed forces and later acquired by the British navy. 19 18 February 15, the Varyag ran aground on the Irish coast during towing, and then resurfaced and was used as a warehouse ship, such as the British navy sequence, until 19 19. 1920 was sold and disintegrated, but it happened again. This time, the Varyag ran aground on the coast of Scotland, about 55 degrees 09 minutes north latitude and 4 degrees 55 minutes west longitude. In the summer of 1923, several foreign companies still did not give up the hull of the Varyag, expecting to tow it to a nearby port and continue to dismantle useful items. In September, they began to lift the Varyag out of the water again, but a month later, they decided to float only the stern part, including the engine room part, while the front part of the hull was demolished at the crash site. This work continued until the winter of 1923. The salvage work continued until May 1924. In August, the boiler room and engine room of the Varyag broke into two parts and had to be dismantled on the spot. /kloc-The dismantling work was completed in February, 0/9, and then the rear part of the hull sank to the seabed. 1925 to 26, there was sporadic salvage work, and all the useful things on board were taken away, so a generation of famous ships sank to the bottom of the sea. 1925 September, a large number of pictures of salvage work were also published in the naval magazine at that time.